Advice on motherboard choice please

[Livewire88]

Hello,

I am building my daughter a gaming PC. I have the majority of components and the final thing I need is a new motherboard.

Can anyone recommend a suitable motherboard for an Intel CPU (i5 12600K), DDR5 RAM and built in WiFi.

Not after anything fancy, so what ever is best value at this point in time.

Thank you

 

[Livewire88]

For overclocking, you'll want a z790. Expect to pay around £170. The Gigabyte Intel Z790 EAGLE AX seems like a good shout at that price. If you're not overclocking, I'd wouldn't overspend on a board unless there's features you need, like more m.2 gen4 slots.

Thank you. Do you know if this bord has the option to automatically overclock the CPU?

I wouldnt know what I was doing, so it's nice having the option to just press a button and let the software do its thing.

 

[Livewire88]

If you want the features I get it, but just FYI: the main reason I'd buy the 12600K is the price and I don't think I'd spend £170+ on a Z board.

12600K: £150
Z790: £170
(£320)

14600KF: £210
B760: £130
(£340)

The latter wins in both gaming and productivity by some margin, even with a mild overclock on the 12600K

Thank you.

You may be onto something. At the moment I have a RTX 4060 (8gb) to go in the PC. And will be looking to upgrade it to an AMD 9070 XT when ever they become readily available.

I guess the 14600KF is overkill for the 4060, but will be a good pairing with the 9070 XT.

Sounds like it will make more sense to go with the cheaper B760 board with the 14600KF CPU. I can return the 12600K so thats not an issue.

 

[Livewire88]

Honestly, I think the 12600K would be fine with the 9070 XT too.

It does depend on the resolution and the games being played, but they're still decent/competitive CPUs and you'd avoid any 13th-14th gen shenanigans down the road.

We tend to play at higher resolutions without worrying about super high FPS.

Do you think the 12600k will pair well with the 9070xt? I'd rather just pay the extra for the 14600kf now if necessary.

 

[Livewire88]

Why are you not considering AM5 ?

I'm already running a 9800X3D in my rig, which I upgraded from a 7800X3D (waste of money that was lol)

Just want to give intel a go as they are a fair bit cheaper.

 

[Livewire88]

Doesn't that make more sense then to go AM5 like a 7600 for you daughters build so then you can hand me down upgrades, easier to troubleshoot.

Yes it does, in hindsight I wish I kept the 7800X3D..

It almost feels like I'm punishing myself for making that mistake!

To be honest, I'm new to PC gaming so would like to gain some experience with different components. It's all part of the fun to me